La Julia Rhea was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 opera

Opera

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

tic soprano

Soprano

A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...

, and a pioneering African American

African American

African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...

 figure in Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

. Rhea was trained in Louisville, Kentucky

Louisville, Kentucky

Louisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...

 and later in Chicago. She debuted in Chicago's Kimball Hall in 1929. She continued to make regular concert performances as she studied operatic roles over the next decade. In a 1931 production of Verdi

Giuseppe Verdi

Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...

's Aida

Aida

Aida sometimes spelled Aïda, is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni, based on a scenario written by French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette...

, Rhea appeared in her first opera performance in the title role aside William Franklin

William Franklin (opera)

William Franklin was an opera singer who was considered to be a pioneering African American in the Chicago music scene. William began playing trombone and singing in jazz groups after completing high school...

as Amonasro. Both Rhea and Franklin appeared in productions of the National Negro Opera Company

National Negro Opera Company

The National Negro Opera Company was the first African-American opera company in the United States.Organized in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, under the direction of Mary Cardwell Dawson, the company was resident in a Queen Anne-style house at 7101 Apple Street in the city's Homewood...

 (NNOC) as well as operettas by Gilbert and Sullivan

Gilbert and Sullivan

Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the librettist W. S. Gilbert and the composer Arthur Sullivan . The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S...

. (Southern 416)

The production of Aida in which Rhea made her operatic debut was organized by the NNOC Guild's as part of Pittsburg's National Association of Negro Musicians annual meeting. Mary Cardwell Dawson

Mary Cardwell Dawson

Mary Cardwell Dawson was an African-American musician and teacher and the founding director of the National Negro Opera Company....

organized the event. (529)